Viridian Energy and Environmental, LLC, a new company specializing in energy modeling, green building consulting, and commissioning, was created on November 1, 2006, by four leading consultants from Norwalk, Connecticut-based Steven Winter Associates (SWA). The four—Adrian Tuluca, John Amatruda, Carl Ian Graham, and Vevashish (Dave) Lahiri—... Read more

Among the many announcements at the 2006 Greenbuild conference was the formation of the Green Cleaning Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to spreading information about green cleaning in hospitals, schools, offices, and other buildings (for more on green cleaning, see

EBN Vol. 14, No. 9). The founding members of the network include... Read more

Averting serious climate change would be far cheaper today than dealing with it in the future, according to a report commissioned by the British government and written by Sir Nicholas Stern, chief of Britain’s economic service and former chief economist of the World Bank. If we continue to allow unmitigated climate change, dealing with its... Read more

Despite strong opposition from industry groups, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a strict new lead bill into law, saying, “Protecting public health is a top priority.” Bill AB 1953 mandates that all pipes and fixtures carrying water for human consumption be “lead free” and lowers the levels of allowable lead in lead-free fixtures from the... Read more

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 7) and then discontinued in 2005 (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 10) is back, and from more than one company. This product uses a booster compressor that makes it viable as an air-source heat pump even in very cold weather. David Shaw, designer... Read more

Three longtime leaders in the green building field, Bill Browning, Bob Fox, and Rick Cook, have formed a partnership, Terrapin Bright Green, LLC, to provide clients with consulting, strategic planning, and policy services. While Fox and Cook will continue work with their existing firm (Cook + Fox Architects in New York City), they are working... Read more

Green CommunitiesTM, a partnership between Enterprise Community Partners and the Natural Resources Defense Council (see

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 3), is now offering grants of up to $5,000 for affordable housing developers who wish to incorporate green planning charrettes into their design processes. The grants, designed to pay for... Read more

EBN

Vol. 14, No. 10) as an alternate path to achieve a credit for low-emitting carpets in the LEED® Rating System. As originally written, credit EQ 4.3, “Low-Emitting Materials: Carpet Systems,”... Read more

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) has announced the opening of its 2007 Top Ten Green Projects design competition. Online registration for the competition began November 10, 2006 and continues through the January 17, 2007 submission deadline. The deadline to take advantage of early... Read more

Building Design + Construction magazine, published in a white paper entitled “Green Buildings and the Bottom Line” (November 2006), reveal that green building activities are growing (no surprise there) but that expectations of future activity are much higher that actual activity. The online survey of 872 industry... Read more

A committee led by Bill Reed, AIA, and John Boecker, AIA, under the auspices of the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS), has released a draft Whole Systems Integrative Process (WSIP) Standard Guide for public comment and ballot. Originally termed a standard on integrated design process, the document has been renamed to... Read more

After several years of conversations about a rating system grounded in life-cycle assessment, with regional variations and smarter credits, the LEED® 3.0 development process was at risk of collapsing under the weight of expectations. In response, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) chose to begin the process by getting all these... Read more

In 1996,

Environmental Building News (EBN) looked at residential building science developments emerging from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) fledgling

Building America program. Started in 1994, the program consisted of four research teams working with several private-sector builder partners to build and test houses in... Read more

The economic growth of China, India, and other emerging economies threatens serious long-term implications for Earth’s climate, concluded a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC, the world’s largest professional services firm. “The World in 2050” presents six possible approaches to growth but focuses on two: business as usual and “... Read more

BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of GreenSpec® Directory and Environmental Building News (EBN), announced its fifth annual Top-10 Green Building Products during the U.S. Green Building Council’s November 2006 Greenbuild Conference and Expo in Denver. Representing the ten most exciting products added to GreenSpec or covered in EBN in the last year... Read more

In September 2006,

The Wall Street Journal announced the winners of its annual Technology Innovation Awards, honoring HelioVolt Corporation of Austin, Texas, and ETwater Systems, LLC, of Corte Madera, California. HelioVolt, winner of the overall Silver award as well as winner in the Energy and Power category, has developed a thin-film... Read more